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March 31, 2015

Vintage Link Love for March 2015

Oh March, what can I say about you this time around, as we reach your final day, toes teetering on the edge of April. It seemed to be one of those months that was long and stressful, where few things went as planned (including the weather - though, really, that can only ever be hoped for), and nothing happened as quickly as desired.

Still, of course, there were perks and positives, including the official start of spring, an antiques auction that yielded a couple of small lots (the contents of which will land in my Etsy shop a little later this year), and, certainly most poignantly to me personally, the 11th anniversary of the day that Tony and I first met back in 2004, which we celebrated - coincidentally - on the very first day of spring: March 20th (if that isn't an auspicious start to the season, I don't know what was!).

I think that March very represented the end of winter and the rebirth of a new season, beyond the fact that it literally is as much. By that I mean, it had some strong parting words, a trying labour, and plenty of early growing pains to contend with - all backed by a near constant slate grey sky and plethora of raindrops. Yet, lest you think I'm bemoaning March, even with the massive headache that was suddenly having to do my business taxes at the speed of light, I'm not.

There were subtle signs of the new season, no snow (here in Penticton) all month, a gradual hibernation of certain winter garments, the very first new produce of spring in our local markets, and - gloriously - the return of local garage sales, all of which conspired to ensure that my mood stayed chipper and my hopes high.

In the midst of this long, busy month, as always I was cheered further, as well as inspired, entertained, and informed by many of my fellow bloggers and today I'm pleased as springtime punch to bring you another edition of Vintage Link Love, complete with twelve exciting stories that I hope will help wrap up this month on an extra enjoyable note for all of us.

♥How to pose for photos for blogs: Unless you're a natural born model (and even then!) few amongst us nail posing for photos right out of the gate of even after years of experience. This thorough, image filled, marvelous post from CiCi will help you navigate these choppy waters and provide scores of smart, practical to try ideas for looking more natural and at ease in your blog photos.

♥A guide to making a vintage style whimsy: Have you ever seen those charming 1950s/1960s all (or nearly all) net "hats" and wondered what they were called and what their history was? They're called whimsies and my good friend - and mind-blowingly talented milliner - Tanith Rowan is on a mission to educate and inspire all of us about whimsies through a series of posts and a campaign to bring them back, including this great entry that will show you how to make your very own whimsy.

♥Vintage images of 1940s Canadian war brides: Fellow Canadian vintage loving lady Liz never fails to deliver when it comes to penning fantastic history filled posts and one her latest, a look Canadian war brides (English women who married Canadian soldiers and returned with them to live in Canada following WW2) is a touching, important reminder of this slice of our country's - and UK's - past.

♥A Shock of Schiaparelli: The Surreal Provocateur Who Forever Altered Fashion: Whether you're a fan of her designs or not, there's no denying the Elsa Schiaparelli knew how to shock, awe, and delight her legions of fans around the world. A fierce rival of Chanel's, Schiaparelli was bold, creative, and never one to shy away from an OTT look, all points that are touched on in this engrossing look from Collector's Weekly at the designer and her work.

♥What it's really like to be a full-time fashion blogger: I love, and found myself frequently, zealously nodding in an agreement with many of the points this terrific post from Catherine Summers of the great fashion blog Not Dressed as a Lamb, which delves into some of the down-to-earth realities that full-time/professional fashion bloggers often encounter.

♥10 style lessons from Marilyn Monroe: Arguably more iconic than any other woman of the 1950s, if not the entire 20th century, Marilyn Monroe's had a look that - especially once she started to to really hit it big professionally - was calculated, chic, and gorgeous. So much so, that many folks still turn to it for serious style inspiration to this day. Brittany's wonderfully fun post will help guide you through 10 important style lessons that will help you nail MM-esque signature style to a tee.

♥A Cool Trick To Hull Strawberries: I love, love, love strawberries and eat them in copious quantities all year round, but especially when they're in season during the spring and summer. Bethany from the The Glamorous Housewife is a huge fan too and recently shared this delightfully easy how-to that will enable you to haul them in a flash with a basic item that we almost all have on hand at anytime.

♥5 typography tips for bloggers: I'm a huge believer in continually looking for ways to better and/or jazz up your blog and the use of a good font or combination of fonts - be it for your design, your posts, social media graphics, you name it! - is one often overlooked way to do just that, as this great post from The Boyer Family Singers highlights.

♥How to make a 130s style handkerchief style halter top: With the warmer half of the year starting to slowly shift into gear again, this excellent tutorial from The Dreamstress blog that guides you through the steps involved with making a 1930s style handkerchief halter top couldn't be more seasonally appropriate.

♥How Did Edwardian Ladies Become Frivolous Flappers In Just 1 Decade?: Mary from We Heart Vintage delves into this fascinating topic and examines some of the many (many!) reasons how and why the old guard, so to speak, of the Victorian and Edwardian eras gave way to the modernity of the 1920s and the more liberated women, such as those who identified as flappers, that we now associate with this decade.

♥A Guide To All Things Lipstick: Natalie has knocked it out of the ballpark again with another thorough, image filled, in-depth look at an engaging topic that most of us are bound to enjoy: the ins and outs, history, and appeal of lipstick throughout the decades.

{All images throughout the list of links above come by way of the post that they are displayed directly beneath the write up of here. Please follow the links provided to learn more about these images.}

♥ ♥ ♥

April is up next and with it comes plenty of reasons to smile! Soon, I hope, we'll have warm, sublimely sun-kissed weather again and that alone is enough to have us all floating on cloud nine. It also houses Easter and my mom's birthday (in just two days!), as well as plenty of seasonal fun and fashions that can't get here quickly enough for me.

On the blogging front, there's oodles that I'm looking forward to as well, next month, including a post about my signature (wardrobe) colour, Chronically Vintage's sixth blogging anniversary, and an exciting giveaway from The Best Vintage Clothing right near the end of the month that I'm sure will appeal to scores of you.

Here's to the first full month of spring and all the loveliness and promises of warmer days, lighter fashions, and fabulous foods that it houses!

36 comments:

You're sincerely welcome, sweet gal. You pour so much work, thought and insight into your great posts and I really feel like they deserve to get a lot of recognition, so sharing some of them here is my own small way of doing just that.

Great links as ever, Jessica! I'm so thrilled you included my 'how to pose' post - I spent a long time putting it together, all the while not knowing if it was actually going to be that useful, so to see it included here makes it feel like it was all worth it :) I've just read Catherine's post about being a full-time fashion blogger - it was so interesting. I love these snippets into what life's really like as a full-time blogger. I'd love to see a 'day in the life of' type account from yourself one day too :) (mind you, perhaps not one of the days you're grappling with accounting ;) ) CC x

Hi lovely CiCi, that's a cool idea! My daily life isn't always glamorous or all that exciting to the average person by any means due primarily to my health and how much of my world dealing with it consumes, so I'd refrained from such a "day in the life" post over the years, but perhaps if I made it more of an "ideal day", where my health was behaving such, it could work. I'll definitely chew it over more and really appreciate the suggestion (your comment about it not being an accounting filled day made me smile ear-to-ear :)).

You're very welcome. It truly is a stellar post and one that I think could easily be part of a "blogging 101" book, guide, etc and that all fashion bloggers, regardless of their level of experience, can benefit from reading. You really knocked it out of the ballpark there, sweet gal!

Love this - I'm going to be stuck here for the rest of the day going through all these links now! Not sure the lipstick stencil would work for me though - I think I've got oddly shaped lips and would end up looking something like a clown!Sian xx Rebel Angel

I hear you there, dear gal. I wouldn't say my lips are "odd" shaped per se (and definitely don't think yours look it either), but they are quite thin, especially my top lip and not full at all, so my attempts at drawing an exaggerated pout always look clown makeup-ish at best and scary Halloween costume-y at worst! :)

Thank you very much for your comment. I hope that you have a fantastic April!♥ Jessica

Once again thanks so much for sharing my post Jessica, you are so marvelous for doing this and it's thrills me to the bone when you enjoy my posts. So thank you again :)

This link love was great. The blog images post was really really good and I have even bookmarked it as I just got a new camera and thought of doing actual photos of my outfits for some roundups. This will come in handy.

You're very welcome, dear Liz, the pleasure is all mine. I adore your blog - and the fact that you shine the spotlight on Canadian history so frequently there - to the moon and back.

Huge congrats on your new camera! I got a new DSLR myself last fall after my trusty workhorse of over seven years went to the big photo lab in the sky and have never been happier with a camera than I am with this new gem. I hope yours thoroughly rocks for you as well!

It's my pleasure, Lisa! I so look forward to penning this post (pretty much) every month and adore tucking away great stories that cross my path in the weeks leading up to each new edition. I try to vary them from post to post and provide lots of interesting stories that are apt to appeal to a wide array of readers. It's also fun for me to get to read them all again while writing this post. :)

Happy Anniversary! (A few days late but it definitely still counts!). Such a great start to the season. I love love love the lipstick stencil, turns out I have been doing it wrong all these years, I was just using my bare skills! Hee Hee! What a magic time it must have been! I am working my way though the links and enjoying the inspiration.

Thank you very much, dear Jerra, that's so sweet of you! Because Tony and I had such a whirlwind courtship, we get to celebrate both our "loveiversary" and our wedding anniversary in the same year, which is really cool (thus October 14th will mark 11 years of wedded bliss for us).

I know, eh? However have we managed sans lip stencil? :D Interestingly, I've seen modern versions of these (and eyebrow stencils) for sale to this day, usually at Asian beauty shops when I lived in Toronto. I'd give the eyebrow ones a go, but probably not the lip ones as I have thin lips and drawing outside of them usually looks comical on me.

She really was sensational and I also admire how fabulously she rocked her curves and owned her (gorgeous!) figure. I love my curves, but have often felt shy about them and about asserting my figure though my clothing choices because I would never want to risk looking overly sexy (that's not the kind of person I am - zero judgement towards those who are), so sometimes its good to be reminded by stars of the past that you can do so and still look really classy in the process.

March brought so many things:1. Spring. :)2. Lots of new (old) clothes found3. Amazing articles all over the Blogoshpereand 4. Longer days, brighter days and much more sunshine.....awaing April's delights!

The longer, brighter days are so heavenly!!! We're not quite into full on spring here yet, but that alone pretty much makes it feel as though we are and I've noticed a spike in my own energy levels as a result of it.

Here's to all the amazing prospects that April holds in store!♥ Jessica

It would be impossible to identify a favorite post of yours, because they are all quite stellar. That said, these are always among my favorites! Not only will I be introduced to a group of fine bloggers unfamiliar to me, but it is immensely kind of you to share what others are doing. It will take me a long time to make even short visits to these places, but when I do, I know they have been carefully selected and will be well worth the time! Thank you and happy April!

Well, this delightful list of posts should keep me busy for a while. I don't think I'll devour them all at once. Maybe just read a couple at a time. {Like a box of chocolates you want to savour!} I've read the posts by Cici & the Boyer girls - both excellent & very helpful!

You're very welcome, sweet Michelle, thank you so much in turn for your lovely comment. I often take the same "savour it" approach with similar posts on the blogs I follow. I've been known to keep them open in a browser tab for a few days until I've worked my way through every enjoyable story shared within them.

I hope you're doing great and that April is already off to a sunny, lovely start for you!

Thank you very much, my sweet friend. Great question! I follow and read a lot (!!!) of blogs, which is where a good many of them come from, then social media fills in some, Tony thoughtfully keeps a close eye open for stories he thinks I might like for my blog, and once in a blue moon, I'll hear of one on the news or somewhere else offline.

Your description of March is spot on for me too, it's been a strange month of highs and lows. I always look forward to your Link Love posts, I don't follow that many blogs so they're always full of things I haven't previously seen.

Thanks for another lovely set of links and for including my tutorial in with them. I'm super excited to read some of these, especially the tips on posing for photos - something I always need help with!!

Great list of links, some of which I had already seen and thought were great and others completely new to me. Hope you are enjoying Spring! We have had 5 full days of sunshine and no rain which is almost a record in my part of the world!

Thank you very much, my sweet friend. I'm happy to know that some of these stories were new to you. I try to introduce ones from sources other than (just) vintage blogs in the hopes that such will ring true for all my readers, most of whom are all following one another's blogs to begin with. :)

I have saved this, my favourite blog post type, to go through it when I had time to really enjoy it. That was this evening, after training and dinner. I loved the article about Elsa S., she was amazing. The photoes of the beautiful black ladies were a treat, and the article about lipstick was long and lovely. Thank you for making this charming and really entertaining lists. Wishing you a lovely day, dear. :)

You are wholeheartedly welcome, sweet Sanne. Thank you so much for letting me know how much you enjoyed this post. They're a firm favourite of both of ours and something that I look forward to penning as each month wraps up. I've already tucked away several posts for the next edition and look forward to working my way up to 12 as the second half of the month progresses.

I'm Jessica, a lifelong lover of all things antique and vintage, especially those from the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

This blog is my visual scrapbook in which I record and share my thoughts on the multitude of sources, people and products that inspire and feed a modern gal's addiction to the past. I also post about the vintage clothes, hairstyles and make-up looks that I adore wearing.

Stay a spell and have a blast as we explore the incomparably fantastic world of vintage history and fashion together.

All images used on this site are credited to their original posters/creators/sources,
however if at any time you would prefer not to see one of your images here, please email me and I'll take it down right away.

PS...I just wanted to say thank you very much for visiting and to tell you that you're equal parts awesome and beautiful.